Green Goddess Dip

A blank page.  Where to begin (again)...  I want to continue with the feel of my first two posts (from September '09)... I am very excited about cooking, and want to cook every recipe in my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

I haven't laid out how long I will give myself, or the rate at which I will cook things.. I do know that I want to start, get life rolling, and figure things out as I go.  If I wait for everything to be "just right", I might never start!  Bear with me as I go - and I am always open to suggestions!

The adventure begins with Green Goddess Dip! 
This recipe contains sour cream, mayo, fresh parsley, chives and tarragon, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper...  I've never used tarragon - already a first, it's very interesting!  I ran into a bump with the chives, 2 grocery stores were out!  So I bought dried chives and used ATK's handy emergency substitutions chart:

1tbsp fresh herbs = 1tsp dried herbs

I'm never really confident handling herbs... do I cut off the thick part of the stem and use the rest?  Or do I pluck all the actual leaves off and discard the whole stem?  I will do some research and get back to myself on that one.  For now I've been doing the in-between.. getting rid of most of the stem... 

I chopped up some celery, carrots & cucumber...  I have resolved to use the entire celery stalk this time.  Every time I buy a big thing of celery, I end up throwing a large portion out.  To ward this off, I cut up the entire thing into dipping sized pieces and will be eating them until they are gone!  I simply must!

The dip is very good!  3 out of 3 people say so!  I would definitely consider bringing this dip to a potluck or gathering.  The tarragon is an interesting taste, almost has a hint of mint?  

I'm certainly no expert - I simply want to create, explore, examine and enjoy things!

Afterthoughts

One reason I want to cook more is so I can eat better, and eat out less during work hours.
I also enjoy taking pictures.. I hope to get better at that during this as well.  For now I am taking the pictures with my phone camera.  It's not horrible but could naturally be better.  Onward!